Industar 50-2, amazing little bugger in M42 world

[Santtu Määttänen]

This thing is TINY, pretty much a speck on the face of a camera 🙂 And it delivers surprisingly good dreamy otherworldly pictures. Not sharp by any means unless stopped down to f11 or smaller and even then it's a far cry from higher-end lenses of the time, not to mention modern ones.

But the fact that something this small can actually really deliver good usable results is amazing. I have one mounted on nikon fg20 now to be almost pocketable 😀 looking for a small m42 body but they all seem to be bit too big for the task I have in mind (jacket pocket "memo" camera, half frame would be a bonus but not available anywhere..).

Here are few pictures taken with Zenit E and this wonderful lens. I had a new Agfa APX400 shot at 320.

Birch by Santtu Määttänen, on Flickr

Path by Santtu Määttänen, on Flickr

Birch and a rock by Santtu Määttänen, on Flickr

Dreamscape by Santtu Määttänen, on Flickr

 

[Sid836]

Good examples of Industar-50-2 are very sharp at all apertures. This is how sharp a good one can get wide open:



Industar-50-2 on Sony Nex-3NL

 

[locheeboy]

Works great with digital, love it on my XD7 - almost P+S...

and it takes a nice photo, as well...

 

[Jerevan]

If you want small, I think the Pentax pre-Spotmatics can be a fun way to go (S1, S3, SV etc) if you are okay with no in-camera meter.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

Nice shots, thanks for the heads up!

 

[Santtu Määttänen]

I actually own a Pentax SV 🙂 But I have this lens mostly on my Nikon FG-20, it's lighter and smaller and with a good quality m42-nikon adapter, quality is good as well. If only there would be a smaller Nikon body I would love to use it (since I mainly shoot Nikon in SLR world) or some tiny tiny m42 body to carry in a pocket with this lens (viewfinder body would be good enough for that purpose, but not sure if there's any).

 

[santino]

The I 50s are great but a lens hood is a good idea since it flares a lot! Another good Industar is the 61 LZ - it focuses so close and has more or less a build in hood. Nice photos btw 😀

 

[aoresteen]

Get a Pentax MV and use an M42 adapter. small kit!